Category: EFGST

Categories
EFGST

Productive Coordination

Why is it so difficult to combine knowledge from different disciplines?

An economist, sociologist, psychologist, engineer, and biologist may examine closely related aspects of reality, yet describe them using different concepts, terminology, and forms of explanation.

The problem may not be disagreement. They may simply be unable to see how their different perspectives fit together.

My latest paper in the General Systems Theory series explores a possible way forward:

👉 Productive co-ordination

The proposed process is simple in principle: Decompress → Recompress → Compare

Specialist propositions are first translated into plain language. Their underlying systems structures—entities, processes, transfers, constraints, feedbacks, and related concepts—are then identified using a common systems idiom.

The resulting structures can be compared and this may reveal:

🔹 Equivalence
🔹 Complementarity
🔹 Nesting
🔹 Contradiction
🔹 Independent utility

The objective is not to force agreement. It is to understand more clearly how different perspectives relate to one another.

But developing the methodology revealed a deeper problem. Most attempts to create a common systems language focus upon developing a common systems vocabulary or idiom.

Yet language does more than name things. Its grammatical structures also represent relationships, processes, and causality. If reality is systemic, and language evolved to represent reality, then systems structures may already be reflected within language itself.

This suggests a potentially important distinction between:

🔹 The Systems Idiom – a common vocabulary for expressing systems structures.

🔹 Systems Linguistics – the study of how systems structures are represented within language.

At present, productive co-ordination can compare identified systems concepts and structures. A more developed systems linguistics may eventually allow deeper comparison between the propositions and causal structures expressed by different disciplines.

This may be one of the missing pieces in the long-standing General Systems Theory dream of integrating knowledge across disciplinary boundaries.

Alongside the paper, I have published four short General Systems Theory course modules featuring plain-English explanations, diagrams, examples, and practical exercises:

GST 38 – Productive Co-ordination
GST 39 – The Productive Co-ordination Process
GST 40 – Comparing Perspectives
GST 41 – Systems Linguistics and the Systems Idiom

Both the paper and course modules are open access.

The paper is available at:

https://www.academia.edu/169817426/Productive_Co_ordination

https://rational-understanding.com/efgst

The course materials are available in two ways:

🔗 Open access (self-paced):
https://rational-understanding.com/gst-course

🔗 Supported learning: via Google Classroom through the ISSS Student SIG.

Those in full-time or part-time education are especially encouraged to join the Student SIG, where they can benefit from guidance by experienced systems scientists, discussion with fellow learners, and access to a wider international community. To join, go to ISSS.

I hope the paper proves useful to those interested in systems theory, interdisciplinary research, communication, knowledge integration, and the future of collective problem-solving.

Categories
EFGST

Systems Linguistics: Representation, Compression, and Productive Coordination

Why do intelligent people looking at the same reality often describe it in completely different ways?

An economist, a psychologist, an engineer, a biologist, and a sociologist may all study the same broad phenomenon, yet use different concepts, different terminology, and different explanations.

The result is often misunderstanding, fragmentation, and difficulty working together.

My latest paper in the General Systems Theory series explores a simple but powerful idea:

👉 Human understanding depends upon compression.

Reality is far too complex to comprehend in full detail. We therefore simplify it through concepts, models, symbols, language, and theories. Different people, disciplines, and cultures develop different compressions of overlapping aspects of reality.

This helps explain both the extraordinary power of human knowledge and the communication difficulties that frequently arise between individuals, disciplines, and communities.

The paper introduces and explores:

🔹 Configurational and causal cognition
🔹 Configurational and causal compression
🔹 Linguistic divergence and hidden convergence
🔹 Systems linguistics as a tool for translation and comparison
🔹 Productive coordination as a means of improving shared understanding

Ultimately, the paper asks a broader question:

How can finite minds understand an infinitely complex reality well enough to coordinate action and maintain viability?

Alongside the paper I have also published a new set of General Systems Theory course modules featuring plain-English explanations, diagrams, examples, and practical exercises.

Both the paper and the course modules are open access. The paper is available at:

https://rational-understanding.com/efgst

https://www.academia.edu/169040199/Systems_Linguistics_Representation_Compression_and_Productive_Coordination

The course materials are available in two ways:

🔗 Open access (self-paced): https://rational-understanding.com/gst-course/

🔗 Supported learning: via Google Classroom through the ISSS Student SIG

Those in full-time or part-time education are especially encouraged to join the Student SIG, where they can benefit from guidance by experienced systems scientists, discussion with fellow learners, and access to a wider international community. To join go to: https://isss.org

I hope it proves useful to those interested in systems theory, communication, complexity, interdisciplinary research, and the future of collective problem-solving.

Categories
EFGST

The Ontology of Randomness, Structure and Information

I’m pleased to share the publication of my latest paper:

The Ontology of Randomness, Structure and Information

This paper is the third in a series on General Systems Theory. It develops a clear, physically grounded account of how patterns arise in reality, addressing a fundamental question:

👉 Why does the world exhibit recurring structure rather than remaining a field of transient variation?

The paper introduces and systematically distinguishes four key concepts:

  • configuration — the arrangement of entities in space-time
  • randomness — non-recurring variation in configuration
  • structure — configuration with causal connectivity
  • information — recurring structure

A central claim is that recurrence requires causality, establishing structure as a necessary condition for information and grounding pattern in causally organised processes rather than in arrangement alone.

The aim, as with earlier papers, is not to add complexity, but to clarify foundational concepts and provide a consistent basis for understanding pattern and information across physical, biological, and social domains.

The paper is available via the following links:

🔗 Academia: https://www.academia.edu/166175568/The_Ontology_of_Randomness_Structure_and_Information
🔗 Website: https://rational-understanding.com/efgst

Alongside the paper, I have also added a new set of course modules to the General Systems Theory (GST) course. These modules correspond to the concepts developed in the paper and are designed to make them accessible through:

  • plain-English explanations
  • diagrams
  • practical exercises

The course materials are available in two ways:

🔗 Open access (self-paced): https://rational-understanding.com/gst-course/
🔗 Supported learning: via Google Classroom through the ISSS Student SIG

Those in full-time or part-time education are especially encouraged to join the Student SIG, where they can benefit from guidance by experienced systems scientists, discussion with fellow learners, and access to a wider international community. To join go to: https://isss.org

I hope these resources are useful to those interested in systems theory.

#SystemsScience #GeneralSystemsTheory #Complexity #Cybernetics #Information #PhilosophyOfScience #Education

Categories
EFGST

Ontological Foundations of General Systems Theory

I’m pleased to share the publication of my latest paper:

Ontological Foundations of General Systems Theory

This paper is the second in a series on General Systems Theory. It sets out a clear, physically grounded framework for understanding reality in systems terms. It brings together concepts of space-time, entities, structure, relationships, causality, and change into a single coherent ontology.

The aim is not to introduce new complexity, but to clarify the foundations on which systems theory rests; providing a consistent basis for analysing systems across physical, biological, and social domains.

The paper is available via the following links:

🔗Academia: https://www.academia.edu/165495501/Ontological_Foundations_of_General_Systems_Theory

🔗Website: https://rational-understanding.com/efgst

Alongside the paper, I have also added a new set of course modules to an existing General Systems Theory (GST) course. These modules correspond to the ontological foundations developed in the paper and are designed to make the concepts accessible through plain-English explanations, diagrams, and practical exercises.

The course materials are available in two ways:

🔗Open access (self-paced): via my website https://rational-understanding.com/gst-course/
🔗Supported learning: via Google Classroom through the ISSS Student SIG.

Those in full-time or part-time education are especially encouraged to join the Student SIG, where they can benefit from guidance by experienced systems scientists, discussion with fellow learners, and access to a wider international community. To join go to : https://isss.org

I hope these resources are useful to those interested in systems theory.

Categories
EFGST

01 Philosophical Foundations of General Systems Theory

This paper sets out the philosophical basis for the Extended Framework for General Systems Theory (EFGST), integrating two complementary perspectives:

  • Cognitive Physicalism – everything that exists is physical and located in space–time, including cognition itself
  • Critical Realism – reality exists independently of our knowledge, but our understanding of it is always mediated

Together, these provide a realist yet epistemically modest foundation for systems science.

The paper explores several key implications, including:

  • systems as real, structured physical entities
  • knowledge as model-based and necessarily partial
  • the distinction between observable events and underlying causal structures
  • and the idea that the future is constrained but not predetermined, unfolding through branching possibilities shaped by interaction and agency

One theme that runs throughout is that we never act directly on reality itself, but on representations of it; representations that are sufficient for action, but never complete.

To illustrate this, I’ve included a banner image accompanying the paper.
You might like to take a careful look at it…

The paper can be downloaded in pdf format from https://rational-understanding.com/EFGST#01